Summertime in South Florida is not just another season.  Mother Nature flexes her muscles this time of year, showing us who is really in charge.  Regardless of what we say, I don’t think that those of us who remain rooted here this time of year are accustomed to the heat, the humidity, the storms and the bugs (I’ve been waiting 55 years to get acclimated)… we basically just accept it and go about our business.  Well, what there is left of it after many of our friends and neighbors head back up North.  But for all the negatives that one can think of about Southwest Florida summers, there is a strange duality to this time of year because there are also some remarkable and wonderful things that occur as well.

As a child growing up here, I knew that the coming of summer meant long uncomfortable nights spent with no air conditioning, waiting for a breeze that never came, but it also meant that when the summer rains came the temperature would immediately (albeit very briefly) drop 20 degrees and the air would smell clean, sweet and alive.  That first rumble of thunder for the season sounded strange and wonderfully welcome after 8 months of dry season and it still does.  School was also out, just in time to play in the puddles that accumulated outside the house. Continue reading →